Security and storm doors have been manufactured by welding heavy-gauge steel parts to produce a frame such as those shown in FIGS. 6b and 6c. Typically these frames have cross-bars 12 and 13 to provide structural support as well as aesthetic design. In the past, however, the doors had to be customized to receive a mail slot. The process of customizing (i.e., installing) a mail slot involved removing the door, if it was already mounted, and cutting an opening in the cross-bars to accommodate steel panel pieces for supporting the mail slot to be installed. Both the cross-bars and the panel pieces had to be carefully machined to the proper size, fitted, and carefully held together so that the panel pieces could be welded to the cross-bar pieces.
Typically metal inert gas (MIG) welding was utilized to install the panel pieces. After welding, additional machining was required to smooth weld beads which appeared on visible surfaces in order to provide an aesthetically appealing surface which could then be painted or otherwise finished. FIGS. 6a, 6b and 6c show the cross-bar and panel pieces after installation according to the welding method of the prior art.
This process of installing a mailslot in such welded steel frame doors, however, is labor intensive and thus expensive since it requires the steps of accurately cutting, machining, fitting, welding, and further machining to produce the finished door. Furthermore, if such a door is mounted in a doorway, the process can not be easily performed on-site and thus requires removing the door, bringing it to the manufacturing plant for customization, and then re-mounting the door.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel mail slot mounting assembly which can be built into a door during the assembly process or easily installed onto the cross-bars of an existing door without the need for welding or extensive cutting operations required in the past. A further object of this invention is to provide a mail slot mounting assembly that can be installed onto the cross-bars of an existing door without dismounting or disassembling the door. It is a still further object of this invention to provide a mail slot mounting assembly which can be readily painted after installation without any special preparation.